Something with meat and veggies perhaps? Anyone do this before with good luck that can recommend their process?

-Dan (0_o)

Just one important note. If you use the "cold pack" or "water bath" canning method in the excellent thread by Feral, don't put the meat or other vegetables in it. These are low acid (>4.5 pH) foods and even if they are mixed in the tomato sauce in small chunks, they may not process properly to kill spores. Better to put the meat, onions, mushrooms, etc. in to the sauce after you open the jars to heat them for service. Meats and low acid vegetables should be pressure canned.

There are even some tomatoes grown now to be low acid, and these should not be cold pack canned either. Best to be aware of the variety you are growning or buying and make sure they are not grown for their "sweet" flavor, which also means "low acid", which also means higher pH.

The concept of pH is a determination of the amount of acid in a system. The numbers range from 1 (very high acid) through 7 (neutral) to 14 (very high base or caustic, the opposite of acid).

Originally Posted By support_six:Just one important note. If you use the "cold pack" or "water bath" canning method in the excellent thread by Feral, don't put the meat or other vegetables in it. These are low acid (>4.5 pH) foods and even if they are mixed in the tomato sauce in small chunks, they may not process properly to kill spores. Better to put the meat, onions, mushrooms, etc. in to the sauce after you open the jars to heat them for service. Meats and low acid vegetables should be pressure canned.

I agree with you wholeheartedly that one should not NOT NOT (can I be more clear?) add low-acid ingredients willy-nilly to a tomato preparation and call it safe simply because it's been through a water bath. Moreover, as soon as you even think about adding meat to a tomato sauce, you're obligated to also start dragging out the pressure canner.

With that said, I think it's worth noting that there aretested recipes out there that allow processing of low-acid ingredients in water bath canner. The Blue Book has quite a few of them. The key here is that these recipes have been tested and are known to have a safe pH. Moreover, these tested recipes all call for supplemental acidification with lemon juice (store bought, not home squeezed) or citric acid.

The forward to Ball's Seasoned Tomato Sauce recipe (p. 364, Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving) puts it succinctly:

Even though onions, a low-acid food, are included in this sauce, this recipe can be processed safely in a boiling-water canner because te acidity of the mixture and a safe processing time have been scientifically determined. However, it is crucial that you do not alter the ingredients or quantities or you may produce a product that isn't safe to eat.[emphasis mine]

Occasionally we'll have folks on the forum detail a "family recipe" that has not been tested and proven safe. The justification for using the recipe is usually: "Well, Granny's been doing this for fifty years and nobody in the family has died yet!" I don't know about you, but this kind of attestation isn't good enough for me and my family. Particularly when many of our foodstuffs will sit on a shelf for a year or even more. I consequently stick with proven recipes........and I recommend that others do as well.

Feral, I totally agree. ...and adding your own acid is a very good method to lower pH. Besides lemon juice one can buy citric acid (forgot the brand name but it's used to inhibit the enzymatic browning in cut fruits and vegetables – Fruit Fresh or something), or even one of the stronger vinegars.

Here is my recipe now I make this cause its cheaper and my kids love it a lot I've used it for just about everything that calls for tomato sauce from deep dish stuffed pizza to spaghetti, raviolis. Now you can make this with or without meat. If you make your own tomato sauce from fresh tomato's then use that instead of the canned stuff I use. Also you can use fresh onions or onion powder and the same goes for the garlic.

1- 15 oz can of Tomato sauce

1- 6 oz can of Tomato paste

1- 2 TBS of Red wine vinegar

1 cup water

2 TBS of Italian spices

2 TBS Garlic powder or chopped

1/2 Onion chopped up

2 to 3 TBS of Brown sugar / Add to your taste

Now take fist 7 ingredients and add to a sauce pan cook on high until the tomato sauce and paste thins out a little. Then turn the heat down to low, After that start adding the brown sugar try first adding 1 TBS at a time stir the brown sugar in and take a little taste and see if it is enough for you. Now let it cook for a hour or two stirring every so often. If you want to add meat to this add 1 lbs ground beef just brown the ground beef and add to the tomato sauce just after you add the sugar. The longer you let this cook it seems the better it tastes to me . The spices and everything can have more or less added to fit your taste. I've also added mushrooms to this and added other veggies also chopped up fine (Kids don't like veggies if they can see them.)